She Was Raised With Elders

Zone Conference: East Malaysia Group

Apa khabar?

No offense to the rest of you, but I'm serving in the coolest mission in the world. I know everyone says that about their mission, I guess I'm one of them haha. I don't know what I did to deserve all of the love I've seen from other people, but I'll take it.

Here's a moment I never want to forget: On Tuesday, after District Meeting, Elders Snyder, Shuetz, Mitchell, and Fletcher and Sister LeBaron and I were biking over to Kevin's house since he's our branch mission leader. We biked by these kids hunting in a gutter (all of the houses have a gutter in front for all of the sewage but surprisingly it doesn't smell that bad), and they all ran out of the gutter, covered in mud and sewage. They were yelling and chasing us, and one of them was holding a bayowak over his head, running and screaming. What's a bayowak you ask? Well it's the Malay word for "monitor lizard." People like hunting and eating them here. I have yet to try one but one of these P-Days the Elders want to go hunt in a storm drain and cook one up. I'm in.

Anyway, I pointed at the kid with the giant lizard over his head and yelled "Hebatlah!" I love the kids here. I love that they were laughing and we were laughing as they ran down the street with us.

On Wednesday, the district and I hopped on an airplane to Kuching. Yes, I have the route memorized to the Miri airport by now. We drive right through our area to get to it, and Sister LeBaron and I think "Man, we bike far everyday..." as we see how many miles it takes to get to it by car. And yes, I know where everything is in Kuching's airport now too. We saw a group of white kids and I thought, "Bingo, more missionaries." I got to see my Elders from the MTC again, at least the ones serving in East Malaysia, and we caught up some more even though I just saw them at new missionary training. I love seeing how much we grow every time we meet. Our bahasa Melayu gets better, we love the people more, and we're better teachers. Better missionaries.

We got on another plane to Singapore, the lion city, and once again I was in awe at how huge Singapore is. On the MRT (metro), Sister LeBaron gave 2 Book of Mormon copies away in the time it took me to give away exactly 0, but I tried really hard and I was surprised at how much easier it was to talk to people about the families, and Jesus Christ, than it was for me 2 months ago. And of course, people still rejected me but other people were really interested. And no, I'm not awkward or a weirdo about bringing up religion, it's actually really easy to tie in how the gospel can bless someone with pretty much anything they say.

 We dropped our stuff off at the church, and a bunch of us headed to Chinatown. Sister LeBaron and I bought little keychains (36 keychains for 10 Sing. How could we not?) for our investigators and families, I picked some ties out for the Elders because they were overwhelmed with all the choices, and Sister LeBaron and I ditched the group to buy chocolate chips, mostly because she heard some sad news about one of her former investigators from Singapore and wanted to be alone. We took pictures all along the way. We met up with the Elders at Baja Fresh, and I almost cried when I ate my carnita burrito. It was so good, I forgot how much I missed Baja Fresh haha. Then, Sister LeBaron said, "Where's Elder Wayment?" Elder Wayment was talking all week about how excited he was to go to Baja Fresh. All week. Someone told us they heard his greenie, Elder Christensen got held up at immigration. It was really funny but also really sad because poor Elder Wayment just wanted his Baja Fresh. We found them later and I asked Elder Christensen "What happened?" And he said with a completely straight face, "The customs people thought the shoehorns in my suitcase were pocketknives." But it's okay because they ended up going to Chili's, and Elder Wayment was still pretty happy.

We got ice cream sandwiches (literal ice cream sandwiches) and took pictures by a big MockingJay statue and headed back to the chapel to start zone conference. It was tempting to catch up with all of the Elders from my MTC group and their trainers, but I also wanted to talk to other people on the MRT. If someone made eye contact with me, I would stop my conversation with whichever Elder I was talking to and go talk to that other person. I showed people my family photo album, and a lot of Singaporeans said my family was beautiful. Mom and Cloe were gorgeous, and Mikel and dad were handsome. The people on the MRT look so tired, and initially it's scary to talk to them because they like keeping to themselves, but they light up so much when you talk to them and ask them how their day is going. I think missionaries forget we have a special spirit about us.

At the chapel, President and Sister Mains, along with Elder Harper and Elder Crosland, addressed us. Elder Harper spoke about how working hard is not the end goal. We shouldn't look back at the end of our missions and say, "Well, at least I worked hard." We really should focus on helping other people, and being effective and doing as much good as possible. He also recited the poem, "The Strength of Brothers." What strength of man cannot fulfill, the strength of brothers can fulfill. Something like that.

Elder Crosland talked about the internalizing pattern from Preach My Gospel, where we do what we want to improve on each day, and evaluate and change what we need to to become better teachers. He also said missionary work isn't trial and error anymore, we have all the tools we need to become successful missionaries. I love Preach My Gospel because it lets us be ourselves, just in missionary form. And there's a lot it doesn't say. As I've been on my mission, I've learned that there's no exact formula to teach people. Every area is different, every family is different. Elder Crosland said to not worry about ourselves--as we focus on others, Heavenly Father will take care of us.

Afterwards, we wrote notes to the youth for the East Malaysia youth conference coming up in a couple weeks, about standing in holy places. Elder Ferguson made fun of me the whole time, but he said he missed me. Elder Parker too, but he said he didn't miss me. Elder Liddle asked Sister LeBaron how we find new people to teach, because he said we were good missionaries. It meant a lot to me, but I told him he's doing great himself and he's doing everything right. One of the trainers was asking me something I don't remember, probably something I thought was funny that none of the other sisters thought was, and Elder Ferguson said, "Of course. She was raised with Elders." I loved it because he made it sound like I was raised with wolves or something in the MTC. Oh, I remember what it was, I was telling someone I wished Sisters were more understanding that Elders are just 18, 19, 20 year old boys, and yes, they are men of God, but sometimes you just have to let them be goofballs and be patient with them. I don't really have that problem because I pretty much think everything is funny.

Before we left the chapel, I was talking to Elder Capener about Elder Strathearn since Elder Strathearn is serving in Singapore. As we were talking about how we wish we could see him, he appeared and said, "Woah I didn't know zone conference for East was going on right now." Elder Capener gave him a huge hug and I freaked out a little because I was so happy to see him. He seriously looked like a saint. And his Australian accent is back because he talks to so many Australians now. I gave him the picture of our MTC district the day we got caught in the rain because I know he loves that picture. I quickly wrote on the back of it, "You're one of the most Christlike people I know. Jangan putus asa!"

That night, Sister LeBaron and I got lost trying to find Sister Stokes' and Sister Schriever's apartment due to some bad directions and addresses, but I was happy to make new friends even though I was exhausted. I only slept 4 hours that night because Singapore is noisy and bright, and I missed quiet little Miri, but I crept out of the room and prayed for a while. I asked God, "I'm really tired, and can't sleep. Can I wake up at 7:30 tomorrow instead of 7? I know the other sisters will understand." and I had this thought, "Sister Wynn, you know we wake up at 7 in this mission." I said okay, and got up at 7 like Heavenly Father asked me to. I've seen miracles this week as I've tried to be more obedient. I obey because I love, remember?

Zone conference was awesome. The way we do it in our mission is Singapore, West Malaysia, and East Malaysia have their separate zone conferences with multiple zones. We also had KK's zone join us because as they were trying to go to the West Malaysia zone conference, their plane turned around halfway though their flight back to KK. Yes, I know KK is in East Malaysia, but they were supposed to be grouped with the missionaries in West Malaysia. I heard really good talks about why it's important to open our mouths. Elder Lundquist said that we need to preach along the way, and even something as simple as smiling at people testifies of our message. When we smile we're also opening our mouths. We had really good training on the importance of goal setting, and how our goals help us stretch ourselves to talk to and teach as many people as possible. When we don't meet our goals, we make specific changes to meet them the next week. We heard the testimonies of all of the departing missionaries. Elder Pratt, one of the Elders serving in KK, said Sarawak is "where it's at" and that he misses it. I learned from pretty much everyone that the mission goes by fast. Don't waste a second of it.

We took our group picture, and I got to see Elder Lambert (also serving in Singapore) because he happened to be by the chapel and we needed someone to take the picture. I was so excited to see him. One of the Sisters in Singapore was telling me earlier how he and Elder Strathearn were doing really good work. I caught up with more of the Elders from my MTC group, made friends with more Elders and Sisters, and then Sister LeBaron said, "Sister Wynn, I found a friend," and took me to see Elder Fabiano! It was good to see him, meet his new trainee, and hear about the work in Singapore. Apparently, the Chinese Elders in Singapore always have lots of people to teach and the work is doing really well. Elder Fabiano said he really misses Miri though. He's a great missionary. He might be one of my favorite Elders. I have a lot of favorites, haha. We went to dinner at Subway with him and a couple other Chinese Elders. No, they aren't all literally Chinese, it's mission slang. We have Malay Elders, Malay Sisters, and English missionaries too haha. I met a lot of really great people on this trip who are good examples to me of how to be missionaries that do a lot of good. 

I understand the irony of me being in one of the food capitols of the world and eating at Subway and Baja Fresh.

After dinner, we had a couple converts to the church, Brother Smart, from South Africa, and Brother Hyro, the Costa Rican ambassador for Singapore speak to us. Brother Hyro was introduced to the church while President Hinckley was working with him and the president of Costa Rica to build another temple there. We had a little more training within our zones, and then zone conference was over. I said goodbye to my friends, felt edified, and happy. The next morning, Sister LeBaron and I met up with our little Miri district (after going to the wrong terminal) at the airport. We had our layover in Kuala Lumpur, which has a really cool airport, and then landed in Miri. I kept saying, "I can't wait to go home." Miri is home to me. I'm grateful I get to fly so much in this mission, I love planes and airports.

We got home around 4 pm, and in my old life, I would've taken a nice little nap. But missionary work doesn't stop. We unpacked and ran out the door to get to our appointments that night. Sister LeBaron's bike broke (the wheel axel cracked) so the best district leader ever, Elder Wayment, and Elder Mitchell, Elder Fletcher, and Elder Christensen replaced her wheel, taking time out of their day to help us. Elder Fletcher lent her his bike and we got to our appointment. I can't get enough of how wonderful people are.

Miracle of the week: A couple of the girls we've been teaching (one is 18, one is 15) said their mom didn't want us teaching them anymore, so we stopped coming. Then, when we were looking for their next door neighbors, who are members of the church, the older daughter and mom invited us into their home, and let them teach them a lesson. Then the mom shared some spiritual experiences she's had, and then said she believed the Book of Mormon was the word of God. We asked if we could continue teaching her and she said yes. It was one of those moments where I'm sure I looked stupid because my jaw dropped. God is preparing the hearts of people everywhere.

Missionary work is still hard. Some days I have to pray really hard to feel happy enough to teach, and I always do. My bike has a flat tire. But I'm happy, and it's all worth it.

Love you like always.

-Sister Wynn